What the Heck is a Funnel, Anyway?

How to Enter a Forum…

That sounds silly doesn’t it? Why would I have to learn how to enter a forum? I just sign up and post right?

It would seem on the surface to be that easy, but I see a lot of people have a real hard time…

Over time forums create a very tight community. Everyone learns the rules and looks out for each other…

That’s the first thing… Read the rules. Different forums approach how you display links differently or even what you can talk about…

The other thing is don’t come in gang busters!! Don’t try to prove yourself and get to excited about showing everyone your knowledge etc….

Get to know the community first. Hang out for a while. Introduce yourself politely… Usually there is a separate area set aside for intros… And then start browsing.

Get to know the other posters… Remember a lot of these people have known each other for a while. They may even be doing business behind the scenes…

Once you have a feel for it, start helping out.

Helping out… If you have any knowledge to contribute, provide it… Help people with things you know about.

Learn… Read… Learn… Read some more… Ask questions…

Then let it rip if you want to.

The bottom line is very few people can go crazy right off the bat… There is an exception here or there, but usually the community wants to see you contribute for a while before you get bold. They need to get to know you.

Definitely don’t provide a sales pitch in your first post… You will getting flaming posts and anger the community. Everyone will see it as spam.

It’s just like building any relationship. Easy at first until you get to know each other.

Who Is Sean Mize. Initially made his “claim to fame” on ezinearticles by writing ~ 1500 articles his first 10 months in the business, then by hiring writers to write another ~23,500 – Next, Sean developed a virtual coaching program system designed to make it super easy for someone to coach 100% from home with just a telephone and an internet connection, and then wrote a book, Anyone Can Coach, to teach the system. Now he teaches online marketers with established businesses how to increase email conversion, sell more products, create coaching programs, and automate revenue through emails.

What the Heck is a Funnel, Anyway?

For an online business owner, a sales funnel is probably the most important marketing tool you have. And yet many entrepreneurs – both new and established – have no clear understanding of what a funnel is or how it works.

As you can imagine, failing to fully understand this critical part of your business means fewer sales, lower profits, and ultimately, an unstable business.

A Simple Sales Funnel

At its most basic, a sales funnel consists of free content, which typically requires nothing of your readers. Many sales funnels begin with blog posts, YouTube videos, Facebook content, and other information readers can access at no cost. This is the “top” of your funnel.

Next, you’ll have an attractive offer that requires a very small “payment” of sorts – typically an email address. You’ve seen this type of offer on websites all over the internet, and probably even signed up for some. This is the free ebook or guide, video series, checklist, workbook, or other valuable content that is available in exchange for “opting in” to an email list.

Once on your mailing list, you’ll then present your readers with a series of low-cost offers. Perhaps you have a low-priced ebook or a trial membership.

Customers who purchase your low-priced product move further down the funnel, and are presented with more, higher priced products. As they continue to buy, they move closer and closer to your top-end offers, which make up the bottom of your funnel.

How Your Funnel Works

If you imagine your funnel as looking like, well, a funnel, it’s easy to see that your free content—at the top—is consumed by the largest number of readers. Below that, your extreme low-cost item (available only for the cost of an email address) attracts a smaller subset of the true freebie seekers. Next, your low-priced products bring in yet a smaller group.

Finally, as you near the tip of the funnel, only the loyalest of fans and customers will purchase your highest priced offers.

Your job, as the business owner, is to ensure that your funnel leads buyers naturally from the top, free offers all the way to the bottom. The more buyers you can keep in your funnel, the more money you will make.

Most new—and even established—business owners can easily envision the top of the funnel, but if you truly want your business to grow, you must master the entire process, and that starts with understanding what a funnel really is and how it works.